Give juveniles served mandatory minimum sentences a second chance

We applauded last year’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court striking down mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles.

The court ruled such sentences conflicted with the Constitutional

prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

The mandatory sentence was an example of a cookie-cutter approach which has filled prisons and failed to deter crime.

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But the ruling didn’t make it clear if it applied retroactively, to youngsters sentenced to life in prison in the past.

In the absence of such a clarification, states can wait for a second ruling to wend its way through the federal court system or act on their own, changing the law to allow review of previous sentences.

In Michigan, the Legislature appears headed for a stalemate on the issue.

The ruling didn’t prohibit sentencing juveniles to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It simply held that state laws cannot make such sentences mandatory for certain crimes. Judges must have some discretion.

Mandatory sentences – a two-year minimum sentence for use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and a mandatory life in prison without parole for premeditated murder come to mind – were the product of a get-tough approach. But it hasn’t worked, especially with kids who don’t reckon with consequences nearly as well as adults.

So what to do with the 360 lifers in Michigan prisons who were sentenced for murders committed as juveniles?

A bi-partisan group of legislators in Lansing favors resentencing, especially for the 100 or so who had lesser roles in the crime. Holland Republican Rep. Joe Haveman said he’s not proposing to set these prisoners free.

“I’m suggesting that a small number of them may someday deserve a second look.”

Others, including families of victims, oppose any move to free someone who murdered their loved one.

Attorney General Bill Schuette proposes waiting until the Supreme Court itself rules on the matter of retroactivity, which might happen in a few years.

We acknowledge that resentencing hearings will involve victims’ families, reawakening painful memories for people who believe the convicts should pay their full debt to society.

But there are many ways to pay that debt. Rehabilitation and a successful life outside prison is one, if the prison environment hasn’t made that impossible.